Should Mary Be Worshipped?

Quick follow-up to the last post on Mary (if you missed Why Venerate Mary? Click here!)  There’s so much confusion about the proper way to venerate Mary (and even the proper words to use!) that hopefully this will dispel some of the confusion for you, my dear reader.

We have to be careful with the use of the word worship when we’re talking about Mary.  If you have read some of the saints’ writings on Mary, you may have noticed they wrote about the worship of Mary.  This is because the connotation we have with worship is very different from its meaning over the centuries.  We tend to think of worship as something due only to God, but originally worship only meant devotion.

There are actually 3 types of worship as distinguished by the great Saint Thomas Aquinas: latria, dulia, and hyper-dulia.  Latria, or adoration, refers to the devotion and total submission a creature owes to the Creator.  In other words, latria is due only to God.

Dulia, or veneration, is the reverence due to a creature who lives a virtuous, devout life.  The saints, for example, are worthy of dulia. We venerate them because of their love of God and try to learn from and imitate their examples, but we don’t worship them the way we worship God.

Lastly there is hyper-dulia, which is the veneration due to our Blessed Mother.  Let us note (lest we be accused of adoring Mary) that hyper-dulia is not the same as latria and will never be because Mary is a creature while God is the uncreated Creator.  Yet Mary is owed a special kind of reverence above and beyond what we give the saints because she is the apex of God’s creation: His masterpiece.  Immaculately conceived, full of grace, completely sinless her whole life, and the Mother of God – no saint can compare to this!  And so while hyper-dulia will never come close to latria, in the same vein hyper-dulia is fay beyond dulia.

So perhaps that is all a little too technical for a blog, and I’m certainly not suggesting you go and tell everyone to worship Mary since that would probably only add to the confusion.  But I found these 3 distinctions about worship very helpful just for my own understanding of a proper devotion to Mary and hope you will too!

One last, non-technical note.  St. Thomas also notes that when we venerate the saints and Our Lady we are actually adoring God.  To complement the work of an artist is to complement the artist, and so to love the saints for their love of God is indeed to love God.  Let us always remember that this is especially true with Mary.  To love the Mother of God is truly to love God!

Making Time for Prayer

Prayer is probably one of the most difficult parts of any spiritual life.  It’s so simple but so demanding.  It takes discipline, patience and most importantly, faith.  As the Church celebrates the feast of St. Teresa of Avila, a doctor of the Church and a great mystic, it seemed fitting to write about prayer.

St. Teresa said that those who don’t pray commit something like soul-murder.  How’s that for strong words?  For her prayer is an indispensable way of getting to know God.  The way to understand how much God does for us and therefore our dependence on Him (a concept much lost on many in today’s world).

I went to Adoration this morning and it was just such a relief to talk to and see Jesus.  I needed so very badly to just rest in God for a little while.  Life gets so busy sometimes that we feel like we don’t have time for prayer, or that the extra 15 or 30 minutes of sleep is more important.  But the funny thing about prayer is that the more we pray, the more we realize just how much we need it.  We start to see how much it affects our relationship with God, our efforts towards holiness, and our love for others.

Part of the problem is that when we’re not praying we usually don’t feel the effects of our lack of prayer.  It’s usually only once we get into the habit of praying that we begin to feel the ramifications on the days where we don’t make time for it.  But while getting into the habit can be really difficult, it’s so worth it!  It’s a sacrifice whose reward can’t even be put into words, because how do you explain the transformation that occurs when every day in prayer you open yourself to God and let Him mold your heart?

I love the way Teresa of Avila phrases it, “Don’t be discouraged at the many things you must consider before setting out on this Divine journey, which is the royal road to Heaven.  By taking this road we gain such precious treasures that it is no wonder that the cost is so high.  Eventually we will realize that everything we have paid has been like nothing at all in comparison with the prize’s greatness.”

St. Teresa of Avila, pray for us!

See Also: The Struggles of Spiritual Growth

The Power of Praying the Rosary

Happy Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary!  I could write forever on the Rosary and the many blessings, protections, and graces that emanate from saying it daily, but I’ll leave it to the pros:

What Happens When We Pray The Rosary?

“The soul is filled with gratitude and love before these proofs of Divine love; its hope becomes enlarged and its desire is increased for those things which Christ has prepared for such as have united themselves to Him in imitation of His example and in participation in His sufferings” – Pope Leo XIII, his encyclical on the Rosary

“The word ‘Rosary’ means ‘Crown of Roses,’ that is to say that every time someone says the Rosary devoutly, they place a crown of one hundred fifty-three red roses and sixteen white roses upon the heads of Jesus and Mary. Being heavenly roses they will never fade or lose their exquisite beauty” – St. Louis De Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary

“With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love.” – Pope John Paul II, his apostolic letter on the Rosary

“There is no surer means of calling down God’s blessings upon the family . . . than the daily recitation of the Rosary” – Pius XII

Who Supports Praying the Rosary?

“The Rosary is the most excellent form of prayer and the most efficacious means of attaining eternal life.
It is the remedy for all our evils, the root of all our blessings.  There is no more excellent way of praying” – Pope Leo XIII

“The greatest method of praying is to pray the Rosary” – St. Francis de Sales

“The Rosary is my favourite prayer. A marvellous prayer! Marvellous in its simplicity and in its depth. . .the simple prayer of the Rosary beats the rhythm of human life” – John Paul II

“Give me an army saying the Rosary and I will conquer the world” – Pope Pius IX

I couldn’t possibly list all the saints who have prayed the Rosary regularly, but I’ll list a few: St. Jose Maria Escrivia, St. Louis de Monfort, St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Padre Pio, St. Bernadine, St. Bernard, St. Dominic, St. John Vianney, St. Alphonsus Liguori, St. Albert, St. Bonaventure, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Robert Bellarmine and many more!

Praying the Rosary daily will put you in some pretty awesome company!

And as for those who don’t see purpose in the repetitive nature of the Rosary, Fulton Sheen said it best: “The beautiful truth is that there is no repetition in ‘I love you.’”

Pray the Rosary now!  Learn how here

Related Articles: Was the Immaculate Conception Necessary?

Remembering St. Anne

Today we joyfully celebrate the birth of our Mother, Mary!  And I decided that today I would honor her by honoring her mother, St. Anne.  Since God chose St. Anne to bear the Mother of the God, we know that St. Anne must have been one of the holiest people alive at the time, if not the holiest woman on earth.  Such an honor is not bestowed on one who not loyal to God and His Covenant!

I’ve recently been reading The Mystical City of God, which was written by Mary de Agreda, a religious who had visions from Mary and Jesus.  The book, which bears the Imprimatur, has many wonderful things about St. Anne and I wanted to share just a bit with you, since I imagine only a few of you are familiar with City of God.

Upon learning that she will not only become pregnant, but will carry the Mother of the Messiah, St. Anne exclaims, “Use me, O Lord, according to thy will, since to it I resign myself entirely.  I wish to be as completely thy own as such a favor requires; but what shall I do, who am not worthy to be the slave of Her who is to be the Mother of the Onlybegotten and my Daughter?  This I know, and shall confess always: that I am a poor creature; but at the feet of thy greatness I await the course of thy mercy, who art a kind Father and the all-powerful God.  Make me, O Lord, worthy in thy eyes of the dignity Thou bestowest upon me.”

Whoa.  Right?  My prayers don’t sound like that (though perhaps, God willing, one day they will!).

None of us will ever have so great a privilege as to be the Mother of God, or the Mother of the Mother of God, but we do all have the privilege of being adopted sons and daughters of God.  And this, is a far great gift than any of us could ever warrant, and is accompanied by a far greater dignity than we fully understand.  So today, let us pray with St. Anne: “Make me, O Lord, worthy in thy eyes of the dignity Thou bestowest upon me”!

Happy Birthday Mary!  Pray for us!